Hulk, Thing, a Ghost Town and a Bomb

 

cover art by John Romita or Jim Starlin (credit uncertain), with inks by Romita

In 1973, Marvel Team-Up was selling well. So, according to Roy Thomas' introduction to the first Marvel Two-in-One Masterworks, Stan Lee wanted to try out another team-up book, this one featuring Ben Grimm.

The concept was tried out in two successive issues of Marvel Feature and proved to be viable. When written well, Ben might very well rival Peter Parker as the emotional heart of the Marvel Universe and his tendency to banter makes him a strong candidate to team up with other heroes.

Today, we'll look at Marvel Feature #11 (Sept. 1973), written by Len Wein and pencilled by Jim Starlin. Next week, we'll look at the next issue.

One element to this story that immediately makes it fun is bringing back a relatively obscure character who had one appearance a decade earlier. Kurrgo was the despotic ruler of Planet X and had a run in with the FF back in FF #7. He hadn't been seen since.

Now he's making a deal with the Leader. They each pick a champion and have them fight. The winner gets control of both champions and the scientific knowledge of the loser.

Kurrgo picks the Thing while the Leader--not surprisingly--picks the Hulk. Kurrgo claims that the Thing's intelligence and experience will give him an advantage over the stronger Hulk, but hedges his bets by secretly transmitting cosmic radiation to Ben, increasing the hero's strength.

Ben is teleported to an Old West ghost town and the situation is explained to him. To force him to fight, Ben is told he has to get past Hulk in time to deactivate a world-destroying bomb. 

Hulk is teleported in and he fights pretty much because he's annoyed and doesn't know what's going on. He even insults Ben's catch phrase, which I think is pretty low.

What follows is a fun battle, with Starlin's art capturing the power of the superstrength punches being thrown. Ben does try to explain about the bomb, but an angry Hulk is not known for his listening skills.

Ben does get to the bomb, only to find out its a fake. When the villains try to tractor-beam Hulk into their ship, Ben tags along. Leader finds out Kurrgo was cheating. The heroes make quick work of Kurrgo's robot, then jump to the ground before the ship explodes. Hulk jumps away and Ben is stuck alone in the desert. 

The story breaks no new ground--it's pretty much consists of establishing a reason for Hulk and Thing to fight, then showing us that fight. But it's succeeds in being a fun fight AND it does show us that Ben is a viable character to host a team-up book.

Next week, we'll confirm this conclusion by looking at the next issue of Marvel Feature.